Angry Birds Journey Beginner’s Guide: Tips, Tricks & Strategies to Solve Puzzles and Clear More Levels

Angry Birds was a very popular physics-based game back in the day, and Angry Birds Journey continues the tradition of smashing fortresses with Birds launched from slingshots!

Rovio’s new mobile game, Angry Birds Journey, has something for everyone: whether you’re a veteran of the original Angry Birds or a new player looking for some destructive puzzles to solve. It’s also much more approachable than previous titles, with numerous special abilities, boosters, and trajectory prediction for your birds.

We’ve compiled some tips and tricks for new players who want to get a headstart in Angry Birds Journey. So stay with us and check out our Angry Birds Journey beginner’s guide for some much-needed tips, tricks and strategies!

Check Your Objectives

It’s really east to get caught in the mindset of “destroy everything!” but you have to remember your objectives in each mission.

The helpful info panel on the screen’s upper left will tell you the number of objectives you need to complete – whether that’s Pigs defeated, Hatchlings freed, or Fireflies reunited.

Bird is The Word

In Angry Birds Journey, each of the Birds you have at your disposal have their own unique abilities and fortes. Knowing what each Bird can do and what they’re good against is key to clearing levels.

Players of previous Angry Birds games should note that unlike older titles, you do not have to tap again to activate Bird abilities. They now activate on collision.

Chuck, The Yellow Bird

Chuck was one of the first Birds in the original Angry Birds, and he plays the same role here. On impact, Chuck darts sideways, damaging everything in his path. While he can’t effectively deal with stone blocks, wood and glass blocks are particularly vulnerable to Chuck’s dash.

The key to using Chuck well is learning to envision how far his dash will take him. Once you’ve mastered this, you’ll get better mileage out of Chuck!

Bomb, The Black Bird

Bomb returns from the first Angry Birds game. Just like his name suggests, he explodes on impact. Bomb is fantastic at destroying stone tiles, and the destruction he causes often has far-reaching effects.

Silver, The Silver Bird

No, her name really is Silver. Anyway, Silver works similarly to Chuck, except she darts downwards on impact. This makes Silver great at sniping key weaknesses deep inside structures, like TNT, wood, or glass foundations. In a pinch, you can also use Silver to strike at Pigs or Hatchling cages nestled in heavy fortifications.  And, like Chuck, you’ll get the most out of Silver by learning how far her downward dash will take her.

Stella, The Pink Bird

Upon impact, Stella creates a bubble around herself, which pulls nearby blocks in. After a short while, Stella’s bubble pop, flinging all absorbed blocks upwards and rightwards, showering the Pigs and their defenses with debris.

Stella is a very useful Bird since she doesn’t care about the hardness of the blocks. Glass, wood, stone, and yes, even Pigs and Hatchling cages – it’s all just ammo to her. And the first time you toss an entire building at the Pigs? Priceless.

Red, The Red Bird

Red is much more useful now compared to his first incarnation. When Red hits a block, he destroys it, then targets random blocks to destroy as well! Red’s targeting isn’t restrained by solid walls – he can and will attack faraway blocks if there are no nearby targets.

Maximize Your Anger Meter

You may have noticed that there’s a hollow or gray space around the icon of the Bird that’s currently loaded. This area denotes the Anger Meter, a special gauge that fills up as you break blocks. When this meter is full, you can spend it to power up your active Bird, giving it a significant boost in its destructive prowess and improving its skill! When the meter is filled, the screen will helpfully take on a darker shade around the edges, letting you know the Anger Meter is available.

The Anger Meter incentivizes making careful, calculated shots over just firing willy-nilly. The meter builds up for every block broken – whether that’s because one of your Birds hit it or it collapsed due to a lack of structural integrity. Thus, it’s possible to use Birds you don’t want to tear away at weak sections of the Pigs’ stuctures so that you can have a filled-up Anger Meter when you really need it.

Be careful when triggering the Anger Meter as there are no takebacks once it’s used!

Use The Environment

Exploiting the environment to deal maximum damage has always been part of Angry Birds. With the addition of the Anger Meter and several small areas to clear instead of one large one, it’s important to hit structures where they hurt the most.

Special Blocks and Entities

There are several special blocks and doodads that can be attached to structures.

Targets present ideal areas to strike at, and stick out from the sides of blocks. These are a great way to maximize the damage you deal.

Bolted blocks are fixed in place with two hinges. These hinges secure the blocks firmly against the backdrop, meaning that they aren’t affected by gravity. On the other hand, some of them only have a single hinge, causing the unsecured side to swing open like a trapdoor.

Linked blocks are joined by a purple string weaving in between them. These blocks present a huge problem: if one of them is pulled downwards by gravity, it’ll drag its associates with it.

Mystery blocks are depicted as gold ? blocks. Their contents are concealed until they’re forced to move or broken via impact. Mystery blocks can hide objectives, like Pigs and Hatchling cages.

Jelly blocks are purple, starry blocks. These blocks don’t break due to gravity, requiring direct impact from a Bird to destroy them. However, they do bounce off the ground with force proportional to their speed. Clever players can utilize this to cause even more damage to enemy structures!

Chains are indestructible objects; nothing short of dropping them into a pit will get rid of them. However, your Birds can still pass through them.

Hatchling cages are sturdy metal structures that require quite a bit of punch to break. You’ll need to shatter them to free the Hatchlings within, either from direct Bird impact or sending them flying with enough speed.

Hatchling balloons are similar to Hatchling cages in that they contain essential Hatchlings. However, balloons will float relentlessly upwards and pop automatically upon reaching either the top or bottom of the screen (ie, bottomless pits). Alternately, direct impact will pop them.

Fireflies always spawn as a pair, and are blocked from each other due to destructible blocks. Occasionally, they’ll also be found in cages. As a stage objective, the two Fireflies must be reunited by destroying or moving every block in the way. Fireflies will always try to move towards each other, but can also be affected by explosions, structure movement, and the like.

Let Gravity Take Its Course

The same structures that shelter the Pigs can also be their own downfall. After making a big, destructive play, don’t be too hasty in firing your next Bird. Let physics work – weakened structures can tumble down, knocking out Pigs on them or below them. The game has no time limit, so a little patience goes a long way.

If you’ve started aiming a Bird but realized too late that the stage will clear itself, don’t let your finger go. This way you’ll be able to keep your Bird!

Fiddling With Aim

While it’s tempting to rapid-fire Birds from your slingshot, don’t do that. Careful, controlled shots are important to beating each level in Angry Birds Journey.

Most of the shots you make will be direct, forward shots. But don’t forget that you can also aim upwards and you don’t have to fire at full power for every shot. By changing how you aim, you can target precise weak points in the Pigs’ structures for massive damage. Aiming is also easier than ever with dots predicting your Bird’s trajectory!

Utilize Bonuses

Win Streak

Angry Birds Journey has a Win Streak bonus that fills up as you complete levels on the first try. Filling the Win Streak meter grants you free Angry upgrades to up to 3 first Birds at the beginning of the stage. It also gives you extra Sunlight to hit those bonus chests faster!

The Win Streak meter is unlocked after you complete stage 30.

Boosters

Boosters are powerful abilities that you can use to turn the tables on the Pigs. Each of the 3 boosters has a powerful effect.

Chilling Cloud is unlocked at level 40 and causes a freezing wind to pass over the Pigs’ fortresses, turning every block into a glass block. This is perfect for weakening tough stone fortifications, allowing your Birds to do a ton of damage with each hit!

Duckling Rain is unlocked at level 42 and causes a hail of ducks to fall from the skies, with each one acting as a standard projectile. Duckling Rain is fantastic for weakening fortresses no matter where they are, and enough casts can clear you a level!

Flower Power is unlocked at level 44. Similar to Duckling Rain, it directly damages the Pigs’ fortresses. Unlike Duckling Rain, Flower Power does it via flowers that pop up from the ground, making it fantastic at toppling tall structures!

If you run out of boosters, you can buy more by paying coins. Just tap the plus icon beside the booster icon.

Practice and Enjoy!

Angry Birds Journey is a long game, but the removal of stars and the ease of progress makes the game a pleasure to play from beginning to end.

That concludes our Angry Birds Journey beginner’s guide for new players. If you have something you’d like to share or have some tips you wish you knew when you were just starting out, let us know in the comments below!